New Car Bluetooth Integration
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Does your car have hands-free Bluetooth? Will your next? I spend a good bit of time checking out the hands-free Bluetooth integration in new cars. With some cars, the simple act of pairing is not so simple …
I had the good fortune to review the 2009 Audi A4 Quattro last week. While this car does a lot of things right, I’d have to say that the A4’s Bluetooth integration is positively top notch.
There’s no navigation through a series of screens or confusing voice commands. It’s as easy as sitting in the car and turning on your phone’s Bluetooth.
Once the my iPhone and the car were synced, my contacts and call data were pulled into the system and displayed on a well-positioned LCD screen.
While not cheap, Audi’s Bluetooth implementation is almost Apple-like in its simplicity and elegance. It just works …
3 Comments
Joe Leone
February 24th, 2009
at 9:07pm
Hi Dan, that’s very interesting. We have a 2008 Audi A4 Quattro and the “simple” process took me, a fairly tech savvy individual, 2 to 3 tries to get a phone linked. The only confirmation that a phone is linked to Audi’s Bluetooth system is a soft chime and the word “PHONE” appearing on the radio screen. There is no phone signal strength indicator and no Bluetooth icon to confirm you are linked at any given moment. Audi also doesn’t let you know that not all Bluetooth phones are compatible. Verizon Wireless is equally guilty of this lack of communication. My wife (who leases the A4) had to learn this the hard way and ended up exchanging her phone to an Audi compatible phone.
I own a 2006 BMW 3 series without the iDrive and found the Bluetooth integration menu on the radio screen to be more useful than a “chime”. The screen at least shows me that my phone is constantly paired to the car and what my mobile phone signal strength is at any moment. So at least I know whether or not I can make a call. Also, BMW’s system allows one to make a phone call using the car’s voice activation or radio buttons while simply sitting in the car with the accessories on. The A4 engine has to be running and the car in drive to use voice dialing, steering wheel buttons or to view your phone book on the LCD screen.
The A4 and BMW can link to 4 or 5 phones each. However, in the A4 one has no idea which phone linked unless you look at the phonebook. BMW’s system shows the linked phone on the radio screen and allows one to scroll through a list of linked phones. You can easily delete any previously linked phones. This is not possible on the 2008 A4.
leftystrat
February 25th, 2009
at 7:49pm
I won’t be owning a car with BT anytime soon. I suspect it would be nice, in spite of my usual anti-tech stance. My buddy just bought a BT speaker for his car and loves it to death. Instead of muttering to himself, now he looks like he’s talking to his visor. This may or may not be an improvement.
This brings up another point. We keep cars for a while. Look at your old cassette deck, which you laugh about now. Imagine in a few years how funny BT will be :) Or, heaven forbid, computers.
Donkey Kong
April 3rd, 2009
at 7:53am
Why buy a new car for bluetooth. You can just go out and get an aftermarket stereo with bluetooth starting at $120 or so. Nice thing is they come with all sorts of options like USB inputs I have an 120GB drive attached to mine in my glove compartment.